here is the admission of being impressed by Aristotle...


I have rarely read anything which has interested me more, though I have not read as yet more than a quarter of the book proper. From quotations which I had seen, I had a high notion of Aristotle's merits, but I had not the most remote notion what a wonderful man he was. Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle.
Letter to William Ogle (Feb. 22, 1882). Ogle had translated Aristotle's Parts of Animals and sent Darwin a copy. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, ed. Francis Darwin, ii.427.


his ideas of class structure are very similar to aristotle's eg; lower classes/slaves are not too bright, survival of the fittest etc etc etc

just posting the proof of the influence...